My Natural Hair Story

I’ve been in love with my naturally curly hair for as long as I can remember, and have been wearing it as such for most of my life, with  little bouts of relaxers every couple of years throughout high school and my twenties, as I thought my curls were too out of control. It wasn’t up until a few years ago that I decided enough is enough,  and that I just didn’t want to try and tame my mane with harmful chemicals anymore.

Even though family and most of my friends have always been supportive of my choice not to constantly straighten my hair, I definitely experienced resistance towards my natural curls. Most surprisingly, from hair dressers! With every salon visit they would always try to sell me a relaxer under the guise of, “Your hair will be so much easier to handle”, or “Your hair is so dry, a relaxer will take care of that problem for you.” Well,  I grew tired and frustrated with this notion and ended up hardly ever getting a decent cut. So I was happy looking after my tresses myself.

It wasn’t until moving to Tokyo a year ago though that I realized I actually knew nothing about caring for curly hair properly. With the dry winter I faced here, my hair started breaking off. Badly. And what made the situation worse, was that I was in a country with absolutely no resources on how to care for afro textured curly hair. This led me to start doing research via my only accessible source, the internet.

So through connecting with other  naturalistas across the world on online forums, websites and blogs, I finally started my healthy hair journey in April 2013. I am now a very keen natural hair enthusiast in support of embracing every single curl on your head, by sharing information and inspiration, in the hope that my experience can help someone else along the way.

Love your curls!

xxx